01/25/2013

The Historical Jesus

The Historical Jesus

“Historically it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do now know anything about Him.”- Why I Am Not A Christian

Jesus Christ is arguably the most influential man in the whole of human history. So, outside of the Bible – which incidentally is an incredibly reliable document – what kind of evidence is there that Jesus ever existed? Is dear old Mr. Russell right? Is there any extra-biblical evidence for Jesus?

Well, yes, there is.

Non-Christian History

Jesus was born in Bethlehem and grew up in Nazareth under the watch of the Roman Empire, which covered much of Europe, Northern Africa, and parts of the Middle East. So what did the Romans, the rulers of the day, have to say? Here’s Tacitus, probably the best Roman Historian in the world:

“Christus … suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.”

This small excerpt is part of a longer piece on how the Romans treated the early Christian church. Tactitus, writing in the second half of the 1st Century, corroborates Biblical facts about Jesus and the birth of the early church.

A popular objection to the Biblical record may be, “The early Christians made up the stories about Jesus because they needed to spread their false message.” Well, Tacitus and the Romans didn’t need to spread the message. Quite the opposite; they wished the Christians didn’t exist! This is simply an honest historical account of the facts.

Another group of people not exactly tickled by the arrival of Jesus were the Jews. So let’s see what the Jewish historical record says…

Comments

[Jesus was born in Bethlehem and grew up in Nazareth under the watch of the Roman Empire, which covered much of Europe, Northern Africa, and parts of the Middle East. So what did the Romans, the rulers of the day, have to say?]http://www.historian.net/NTHX.html “Scholars have debated about the historicity of this first census since there is no record of it in the Roman archives.” There would have been no relocation to be counted. People in Galilee would not go to Bethlehem to be counted. People were counted and taxed where they lived, not where their ancestors lived. Today we call that creative writing.
[Here’s Tacitus, probably the best Roman Historian in the world: “Christus … suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.”]
Tacitus (55-117 CE) was born about 22 years after the supposed death of Jesus. He wrote the statement about 116 CE. That was about 83 years after the death of Jesus. This is the first historical evidence of a Christus. All books of the NT had been written and the Christians were working to cause major problems in the Roman Empire. Religious violence by Christians was becoming too common, and causing problems for the ruling class. The comment by Tacitus does not prove Jesus ever existed as a god. It proves that Paul was good at creating a religion, much as L. Ron Hubbard was. The Acts of Pilate also verifies Christ.
[This small excerpt is part of a longer piece on how the Romans treated the early Christian church. Tactitus, writing in the second half of the 1st Century, corroborates Biblical facts about Jesus and the birth of the early church.]
Tacitus wrote in the early second century, not the first.
[A popular objection to the Biblical record may be, “The early Christians made up the stories about Jesus because they needed to spread their false message.” Well, Tacitus and the Romans didn’t need to spread the message. Quite the opposite; they wished the Christians didn’t exist! This is simply an honest historical account of the facts.]http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/index.html Look at over 200 totally accurate stories of Jesus and his friends. Some were so far out that they were not included in the current Bible. http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/sjc.html “The Perfect Savior said to them: "I want you to know that Sophia, the Mother of the Universe and the consort, desired by herself to bring these to existence without her male (consort). But by the will of the Father of the Universe, that his unimaginable goodness might be revealed, he created that curtain between the immortals and those that came afterward, that the consequence might follow” Why isn’t this absolute truth in the current Christian Bible?

You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. John 18:37

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For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

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For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 2 Peter 1:16